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How India caused spin choke in the Champions Trophy final

IND vs NZ Final Champions Trophy 2025: This was a chokeslam, like how Undertaker would grab the scruff of his opponents’ neck and slam them down. But India’s new spin quartet – Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy – did it in the most non-violent way possible on a hot afternoon in Dubai. That the four spinners, ever since they came together during the group fixture against New Zealand a week back, were going to weave their magic seemed like a given even before Sunday’s Champions Trophy final. the end of the first innings – where NZ managed 25/17 – they had every bit lived up to that billing.But to do so, they had to overcome the most challenging of tasks that confronted them on this trip. Except Steve Smith in the semi-finals, none of their opponents in the tournament have tried to go hard against India’s spin attack. So once their seamers – Mohammed Shami and Hardik Pandya – gave way to the spinners, they have effortlessly tightened the screws.
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On Sunday, they didn’t have that luxury. This may be a used pitch – the first such instance in this tournament – but it was still dry, all hinting at more turn. When they played Pakan on the same pitch, there was 2.8 degrees turn, but in the final there was just 2.0 degrees turn – the lowest in the Dubai leg of the Champions Trophy. India didn’t fret. They accepted the challenge and went about overcoming it mixing up their pace, trajectory and using the variations to chokeslam the Kiwis.
As Will Young and, in particular, Rachin Ravindra wasted no time to hit top gear and put India under early pressure, Rohit Sharma had to bring on Varun as early as the sixth over with 37 runs already on board. Off his second over, Varun got rid of Young, but with 69 runs already scored the end of the first powerplay – the most India have conceded here – New Zealand had the momentum. That India then had already dropped two catches (there were a few more later) and were ordinary on the field didn’t help either. Even Varun had gone for 21 runs in his first three overs. For the first time, Rohit Sharma was forced into giving a spread-out field. Even the fielders inside the ring were sparsely populated, enabling easy singles through the gap.
Kuldeep gets going right away
So when Kuldeep and Axar came on to bowl in tandem, India needed them to not just stream the run-flow but get the wickets as well. They had already strangled Pakan here once between overs 11-20, but this is a New Zealand side that plays them better than most other teams. The pressure was telling on India. Two of New Zealand’s best players of spin – Rachin and Kane – were in the middle.
Then off the first ball, Kuldeep played a bluff straight-up, getting one to straighten from the middle stump. Rachin had lined up to cut it, but once the ball straightened, he had no chance as it clipped his front pad and then the stumps. When Kuldeep gets a wicket straight-away he is a different bowler. So far in this tournament, he had blown hot and cold, often struggling for rhythm. But as soon as he got Rachin, Kuldeep was at home, bowling between 78-86 kmph. Those pace variations brought him Williamson’s wicket in his second over.

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Through those two wickets, the spinners got down to choke New Zealand’s run-scoring. The huge gaps inside the ring began to narrow as Kuldeep went on the attack from one end, Axar holding the other end. The dot balls piled up and when Jadeja came on in the 20th over, there was no respite either as New Zealand would go 81 deliveries without scoring a boundary.Story continues below this ad
The four spinners bowled through the middle overs as Rohit rotated them to good effect. He attacked with Kuldeep and Varun from one end and used Axar and Jadeja to strangle from the other as New Zealand scored only 103 runs in the 30 overs, losing four wickets on a pitch that didn’t offer much help. Latham tried to sweep Jadeja and was trapped in front, Glenn Phillips played a cameo before Varun cut short his stay with a googly.
The dominance of the spinners continued in the final powerplay as well. Like he did against Pakan, Kuldeep bowled three overs here (41, 43 & 47) and conceded just 13 runs. Varun bowled a couple too, giving away only 8 runs. In all the four spinners, bowled 38 overs between them (Axar not completing his quota), and conceded 144 runs while accounting for 5 wickets. The dot ball count of 125 again stood out which means out of the 38 overs, New Zealand didn’t score for nearly 21 of those.
Most of those came off the bat of Daryl Mitchell who consumed 51 dot balls in his innings of 63 that came off 103 deliveries. With wickets falling around him, he took the game deep, in the hope one from the lower order could give them the final flourish. After Phillips, Michael Bracewell took over, scoring an unbeaten 53 to take New Zealand to 251/7. At the halfway stage, India once again would be the happier side.

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